SpaceX successfully launches two communications satellites
SpaceX today successfully launched its third pair of communications satellites for the Luxembourg satellite company SES, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.
The first stage completed its ninth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
83 SpaceX
51 China
14 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
7 India
American private enterprise now leads China 95 to 51 in successful launches, and the entire world combined 95 to 80. SpaceX by itself is now leads the rest of the world (excluding American companies) 83 to 80.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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SpaceX today successfully launched its third pair of communications satellites for the Luxembourg satellite company SES, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.
The first stage completed its ninth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
83 SpaceX
51 China
14 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
7 India
American private enterprise now leads China 95 to 51 in successful launches, and the entire world combined 95 to 80. SpaceX by itself is now leads the rest of the world (excluding American companies) 83 to 80.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
If SpaceX can sustain this current pace, they *would* hit exactly 100 for this year.
That assumes *everything* goes right, of course. Which it likely will not. But finishing with 95+ launches for the year would be simply staggering. There is just no precedent for what we are seeing now.
Meanwhile, Rocket Lab is resuming launches, with a window opening for the iQPS payload on November 28.
I don’t expect them to hit 100, but mid-90s would still be impressive. Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are coming up. Musk might push his own people through those, but he can’t push NASA or the Space Force. He’ll need Space Force for range safety.
Diane Wilson,
SpaceX has no scheduled NASA payloads launching during the remainder of the year. The Dragon for the recently launched CRS-29 mission will be returning in early December, but that will be after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. The Space Force doesn’t take any holidays off. But the SpaceX Falcons, which use an Automated Flight Termination System, require no range safety assets anyway. SpaceX may or may not make 100 Falcon launches for 2023, but if it falls short, it won’t do so because of holidays or range safety asset non-availability.
I’m going to drop this in here:
Lex Fridman Podcast Number 400
November 9, 2023
“Elon Musk: AI, Aliens, Politics, Physics, Video Games, and Humanity….”
https://youtu.be/JN3KPFbWCy8
2:16:46
Musk is very interesting in the long-form back-n-forth. I think it gives one a much better idea of where his head is actually at vs. how he’s portrayed in ‘media.’
If they miss 100, it will be due to a) payload delays, b) weather, or c) technical difficulties at the launch pad.
But they have a shot. Their paced is just blistering right now.
Diane Wilson and Dick Eagleson,
NASA, launch crews, test crews, security officers, etc. are all too aware that work may continue through holidays. One compensation is the bragging rights about how many holidays were missed, hours spent awake straight, number of days in a row worked, etc. These workers get to show just how dedicated they are to spaceflight and space exploration. When we start comparing war stories, I lose pretty early on.
SpaceX’s launch crews are the busiest that I have ever heard of (duh). I’m sure that any of them that get a holiday off, this season, would be very appreciative.